The Indy is right that the basic difference is that the Times is looking at disclosed spending, while the Journal is comparing promised spending.

But there's another difference as well: The independent expenditures disclosed daily to the FEC are limited to communications. Groups that disclose all their activities, like the party committees, will ultimately disclose their spending on other costs — field operatives, polling — but haven't yet. Unions like AFSCME will disclose those costs — along with unregulated "member-to-member" communications within their own ranks — in their annual report with the Department of Labor, well after the election. Crossroads GPS on the right and the liberal 501(c)(4) groups around America Votes on the left will never disclose their spending on field.

We're left, then, either relying for now on groups' claims or on partial tallies.

But AFSCME's boast does seem to have put a dent in the Democratic narrative that they're being wildly outspent, as does a memo circulated yesterday by the group America Votes, which coordinates field operations between progressive groups like unions and environmental organizations.

"Progressives won’t match this torrent of special interest money on the air, but we are executing our plan to the fight in the field — far away from K Street where real grass-roots mobilization can’t be bought," America Votes officials Joan Fitz-Gerald and Greg Speed wrote. "Our field campaign includes directing millions of dollars to key programs and coordinating nearly $35 million of on-the-ground programs in 10 states. America Votes partners have focused $7 million in resources in the last month of the campaign on over 20 key U.S. House districts in 11 states targeting nearly 650,000 potential progressive drop-off voters. Over $10 million dollars in field programs focused specifically on key battles for redistricting control in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado and Michigan are under way."

That money likely overlaps with AFSCME's claim. And it's a reminder that we're never actually going to know who spent what for whom.

The full America Votes memo is after the jump.

*NOTE: The otherwise helpful Indy story begins with the sort of lazy shot at media bias — both the Journal and the Times articles are straightforwardly reported — that drives me crazy, and is bad for everyone trying to do reporting.

TO: Partners, Supporters & Allies

FROM: Joan Fitz-Gerald & Greg Speed

RE: 12 Days Out: Pounding the Pavement

DATE: Oct. 21, 2010

As the focus now shifts from campaign planning to execution in the field, America Votes and our partner organizations’ efforts to win in the trenches over the final days will be absolutely essential to thwarting a conservative takeover of Congress and key state offices across the country. America Votes is right now coordinating field programs among 82 progressive organizations running nearly 600 individual programs.

The cadre of right-wing organizations formed by Karl Rove and others have put massive amounts of corporate, special interest money on the airwaves. Conservatives have expanded the playing field late in the game as several independent groups coordinated with the Chamber of Commerce to dump another $50 million more into U.S. House races on top of tens of millions already spent. Rove and his American Crossroads have already spent upwards of $14 million in ads, and the Chamber has spent nearly $20 million.

Progressives won’t match this torrent of special interest money on the air, but we are executing our plan to the fight in the field – far away from K Street where real grassroots mobilization can’t be bought:

Our field campaign includes directing millions of dollars to key programs and coordinating nearly $35 million of on-the-ground programs in 10 states.
America Votes partners have focused $7 million in resources in the last month of the campaign on over 20 key U.S. House districts in 11 states targeting nearly 650,000 potential progressive drop-off voters.
Over $10 million dollars in field programs focused specifically on key battles for redistricting control in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Michigan are underway.
As voters hone in on the candidates and the issues most important to them, now is the time that a face-to-face conversation with trusted messengers can be most effective. All of these programs involve direct contact focused on the real issues important to voters and their families. In a year when voters are cynical and don't trust the messages they get from party groups or candidates, it is America Votes’ partners who must fill that information void.

Here are some good examples of the coordination happening on the ground:
Our Pennsylvania PAC project is a perfect example of how America Votes is bringing together important progressive stakeholders in a critical state. The groups — PSEA, PA AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood, SEIU and Conservation Voters — have coordinated resources in an effort to maintain the Pennsylvania State House, which could be lost by only a three-seat swing, while generating a bubble-up effect in the statewide governor’s race, all with an eye on control of the redistricting process. America Votes was able to bring them together to build and implement an integrated voter contact program that includes direct mail, phone, door-to-door and earned media components and maximizes on-the-ground voter contact capacity of each partner group in key state House districts.

In CD-2 in New Hampshire, the America Votes table has helped coordinate the canvass programs of partners like SEIU (New Hampshire for Health Care), Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the League of Conservation Voters. The coalition is targeting nearly 100,000 voters, for both persuasion and GOTV.

In Minnesota, the America Votes state table created Get Up Minnesota, an organization focused on youth voter registration and participation. Get Up has been holding voter pledge drives across the state and has collected more than 35,000 pledge cards. By Election Day, they will have collected over 40,000 pledges and contact more than 100,000 young people.

In Florida, America Votes and its partners are working hard to pass Amendments 5 and 6 that will establish fairness standards for use in creating legislative and congressional district boundaries. The effort includes a targeted statewide GOTV program to inform voters of the importance of passing the amendments. All told, America Votes and its partners are targeting over 65,000 of the most important progressive voters in Florida.

This is on top of GOTV targeting of more than 75,000 voters in Ohio and close to 80,000 in New Mexico, among many other GOTV programs in battleground states.

While the task ahead is much more difficult than in 2008 or 2006, the strategic coordinating role of America Votes has also never been more essential. In a year like this, we need to stretch limited resources as far as possible and be more efficient than our opponents in our coordination and the execution of programs. That is exactly what we are doing.

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That is not the point ben! What the dems are saying is, we want all money disclosed, and the US chamber of china has 75 million in donations from very large corporations and possible foreign govt. We want to know, open the books and prove it to us, and yes that includes democrats money as well!
Nice spin ben, but I expect that from a critical thinker like you! LOL!

The EVEEELLLL Chamber of Commerce. OOH OOH OOH AHH AHH AHH AHHH! You libs are hypocrites. Communists takeover. What happen to you Democrats? What the hell happened? Business is evil now? Attacking our free speech? Illegals canvassing for Dem votes. The long arms of the Democratic Nazi Government want your money so they can take away your freedoms.

Only financial reform or public financing of campaigns will slow down the monied corruption of our political system. Republicans and right-wingers always oppose campaign finance reform because historically the Republicans always outspend Democrats and utilize secret and corporate donors. The Right-wingers also claim that Democrats overrode the will of the people regarding healthcare reform (after the GOP lied relentlessly about it with claims of "government takeover," "death panel," etc.), but overlook the greater evil of the GOP-packed SCOTUS Citizens United ruling giving corporations the same right as individuals and the obvious result as been the opened floodgates of special interest money and the further corruption of our democracy. The dirty tricks, win-at-all-costs GOP (Greed On Parade) folks always put personal greed and interests over the good of the country.

But union field organizations are nothing but "bought" support, from paying people to go to rallies, to forming goon squads, to protesting at private residences and terrorizing the children of the latest bad guy to be fingered and scapegoated by Obama to deflect from his own failures.

There's nothing grass-roots about union support. Moreover, unions themselves can be viewed as corporate entities. The large unions are extremely wealthy and powerful, and some have the ear of the president far more than any corporation.

Union financial assets as institutions are enormous. Their holdings, investments and property rival those of large corporations. Next to them, the small and medium-sized independent businesses whose only voice is the Chamber of Commerce don't stand a chance.

Want your local dry cleaner unionized? It'll end Mainstreet faster than anything Wall Street ever did. That said, no one has sympathies for Wall Street, which almost single-handedly put Obama in office.

Posted By: But union field organizations are nothing but "bought" support, from paying people to go to rallies, | October 22, 2010 at 11:48 AM

I don't understand liberals, like the Joe the Plumber guy above. The New York Times pays reporters to lie. You may not like the opinions of MSNBC or FOX News, but they aren't outright lies like the Times peddles. Look at the story of Jason Blair, who made up 73 stories on the Times payroll. They only fired their liar when other news organizations exposed his lies. Just think, how many stories in today's Times are pure fiction, waiting for real news sourcess to exposed as such.

No, Mad American, it's not that the Chamber of Commerce is evil, but we should know where the money is coming from at the bare minimum. That goes for all political groups. That's aside from the need to have a serious discussion on campaign finance laws. Here's another thought ... the economy is in the crapper, but it's best that we devote billions of dollars to slander each other?

mike: That is not the point ben! .......ben knows what the point is. his job is to throw up dust in order to confuse the issue. to quote upton sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding."